Microsoft Says No April Fool’s Jokes

If there is one day each year that writer geeks dread, it’s April 1. This day is taken by many companies in the tech industry to lie to us all about products and services. Some are close enough to plausible that they end up being reported on as if they were real as many publishing types lose track of the days with regularity. April Fool’s pranks are incredibly annoying.

Microsoft is taking a stand against April Fool’s pranks on a corporate scale reports Mashable. The software giant is discouraging workers from any pranks, even if time and effort have already been put into crafting the pranks. Microsoft’s marketing executive Chris Capossela wrote in an internal memo that jokes could be taken seriously.

His memo read, “Considering the headwinds the tech industry is facing today, Im asking all teams at Microsoft to not do any public-facing April Fools Day stunts. I appreciate that people may have devoted time and resources to these activities, but I believe we have more to lose than gain by attempting to be funny on this one day.”

With the battle against fake news on a daily basis, having corporate sanctioned fake news being posted is not a good thing no matter what day it is. Here’s hoping other tech firms follow suit.